Why doesn't blizzard do something like GW2 Gems?

"gems" are only generated when bought with $ from blizzard.
Players can sell gems for Gold to other players
Players can buy gems for Gold from other players
Gems can be used for server xfers/race change/faction chage/pets/mounts/subscriptions
The more people selling gems the less gold they cost
The fewer people selling gems the more gold they cost

I left Arenanet before this system was implemented (I was part of their Events QA team). Let me ask you, how are the gems acquired. Last I had heard (this was 2 years ago before the first Gamescom demo was done) players would spend real money to get the gems, then they could use the gems for in game services. Is that still how it works?

I left Arenanet before this system was implemented (I was part of their Events QA team). Let me ask you, how are the gems acquired. Last I had heard (this was 2 years ago before the first Gamescom demo was done) players would spend real money to get the gems, then they could use the gems for in game services. Is that still how it works?

I suppose the exception is players can devote game time to acquire gold to buy services essentially in exchange for play time, but is there really an inherent benefit to doing so? It encourages the additional accumulation of gold only to shuffled said gold around player accounts.

Just like WoW's current system has worked successfully for many years, eh?

but its not really working any more. Blizzard is stagnant. They are up for sale (and no one wants them). They need to do something and this would entice a lot of people being able to fully play the game for free.

but its not really working any more. Blizzard is stagnant. They are up for sale (and no one wants them). They need to do something and this would entice a lot of people being able to fully play the game for free.

Millions of subs... and it's nopt working? What color is the sky in your world?

I would think it's pretty simple...they don't want to implement something where people can legally buy gold with real money. If they buy gems with real money and then convert the gems to gold it's the same thing.

Besides, I played GW2 and the conversion rate was not what I would call superb. There were still gold sellers everywhere clogging up my chat boxes and mail boxes.

Maintaining such a large subscriber base in the face of all the competition, and being able to continue using a monthly subscribtion model, are two massive strengths of world of warcraft as a business.

And believe me, i'm in the business of monetizing video games.

In EVE online, the reason the system works is that the entire game is geared towards the economy. You fight FOR the economy, because you want to control resources and such. In WOW, the economy is largely secondary. Even gear can't be properly obtained with in-game gold.

Millions of subs... and it's nopt working? What color is the sky in your world?

Actiblizz stocks have been stagnant since the merger. Their owner is trying to sell them, but no one is even interested in buying them. Without changes to something to get actiblizzard making more money they are probably gonna eventually be sold off just for their IPs (CoD, Warcraft, Diablo, Starcraft) to do a preemptive cut on their losses.

Vivendi has been trying to sell their 61% share of ATVI since August. They have approached every major game publisher from Microsoft to EA to Disney and not a single one has been interested in buying them.

but its not really working any more. Blizzard is stagnant. They are up for sale (and no one wants them). They need to do something and this would entice a lot of people being able to fully play the game for free.

10 million+ isn't working anymore.

Huh.

Just cuz you don't play anymore doesn't mean it's not working for everyone else.

You also realize Blizzard combining with Activision has LITERALLY NOTHING to do with WoW, right?

Vivendi has been trying to sell their 61% share of ATVI since August. They have approached every major game publisher from Microsoft to EA to Disney and not a single one has been interested in buying them.

The reason they are trying to sell the stock is for tax reasons. Vivendi has too much "solid stock" and not enough liquid assets atm. They are looking into buying 3-4 new companies and can not do so with out the "liquid" assets.